Who is The Beggar from Holidays on Ice and what is their importance?

The beggar, who appears in Christmas Means Giving, precipitates the change from hanging onto to one's weath to giving it away. When Doug gives the beggar a dollar, the trajectory is set for the rest of the story. Unfortuantely, the beggar doesn't value the material donations as much as he does the young sons of the narrator until he kills them and leaves them in the traveling sauna given to him by Cottingham.